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Evidence-Based Medicine and Archie Cochrane

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Evidence-Based Medicine and Archie Cochrane Profiles in Medical Courage: Evidence-Based Medicine and Archie Cochrane “Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability.” -Sir William Osler Abstract Archibald (Archie) Cochrane is often credited with being the inspiration for evidence- based medicine. His influential 1971 book, “Effectiveness and Efficiency”, strongly criticized the lack of reliable evidence behind many common healthcare practices. His call for a collection of systematic reviews led to the creation of The Cochrane Collaboration, named in honor of him. Archie Cochrane's life was a tortuous one, which included psychoanalysis, service in two wars, and studies of pneumoconiosis, tuberculosis and healthcare delivery. In this profile of medical courage we explore not only his thoughts on healthcare but his extraordinary background that shaped his ideas. Early Life Archie Cochrane was born in 1909 in Galashiels, Scotland, a cloth manufacturing town 30 miles south of Edinburgh. His family was wealthy mill owners that instilled in Archie the principles of self-reliance and accomplishment. This was important since his father died in the First World War when Archie was 8. However, Archie was financially secure since as the first born, he inherited a private income. By all accounts, he was a bright student. After attending preparatory school at Rhos-on- Sea in Wales, Archie won a scholarship to Uppingham School in Rutland, England, where he became a school prefect and a member of the rugby team. In 1927, he won a scholarship to King’s College Cambridge, where he graduated in 1930 with honors in natural sciences. His inheritance enabled him to continue studying, and during 1931 he worked on tissue culture at the Strangeways Laboratory at Cambridge and later in Toronto. However, he soon tired of what he concluded was trivial research and abandoned basic studies. Psychoanalysis At about this time he became anxious about his sexual development. He had developed anejaculation, a condition where he was unable to ejaculate. This led him to seek medical help but he received little sympathy from the British doctors. However, he found the doctors at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin were willing to take his problem seriously. Between 1931 and 1934 he underwent psychoanalysis with Freud’s leading lay analyst, Theodor Reik. The psychoanalysis began initially in Berlin, but like Freud, Reik was a Jew. Archie followed Reik first to Vienna and later The Hague as Reik fled from Hitler. Archie did some medical studies in Vienna and Leiden during this time, and published his first paper (Elie Metchinikoff and his theory of an ‘instinct de la mort’). Unfortunately, the psychoanalysis did not cure his condition which plagued him for the rest of his life. However, his sojourn in Europe instilled in him a hatred of fascism and a Southwest Journal of Pulmonary and Critical Care/2012/Volume 5 65 skeptical attitude not only of psychoanalysis, but or all theories which had not been validated by testing. Later in his life, Cochrane condemned the entire field of psychiatry for “using a large number of therapies whose effectiveness has not been proven” and for being “basically inefficient” (1). Spanish Civil War Disenchanted, he returned to London in 1934 and continued his studies as a clinical medical student at University College Hospital. His experiences in Europe, his hatred of fascism, and his sense of social justice led him to joint the Socialist Medical Association. In 1936, this group of doctors, medical students and nurses met in London to consider ways of sending medical help to Republicans fighting fascism in the Spanish Civil War. This was viewed by Archie as important since the addition of Spain as a fascist ally to Germany and Italy would likely result in the fall of France and England to fascist aggression. The Socialists decided to send doctors, nurses and medical students to Spain to assist the Republicans and Archie abandoned his studies in order to serve as a volunteer. Figure 1. Panel A. Archie Cochrane as a medical student. Panel B. As a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War with a “flourishing red beard” (From Cardiff University Library, Cochrane Archive, University Hospital Llandough). Southwest Journal of Pulmonary and Critical Care/2012/Volume 5 66 He served at Grañén near Huesca on the Aragon front and the siege of Madrid. Although not qualified as a physician, he served in an ambulance unit as well as performing duties such as triage in the hospital. During this time Archie had contact with the Communists that made up much of the Republican army. Like many intellectuals of that period, Archie had been attracted by Marx during his undergraduate studies. However, his experience in Spain turned him against communism, but he remained a man of the left throughout his life. After about a year all British medical students were ordered to return home to qualify. Archie had grown sick of the war and was happy to comply. World War II He resumed his clinical studies at University College Hospital in 1937, and qualified in 1938. Until the outbreak of the Second World War he worked first as a house physician at the West London Hospital and then as a research assistant University College Hospital. At the beginning of World War II, he enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps and served first in Egypt and then as a medical officer in “D” Battalion Layforce, a commando unit. The one military action in which he was involved ended disastrously in Crete when the British troops surrendered and Archie was taken as a prisoner of war (POW). Figure 2. Archie Cochrane as a POW with his identity card (From Cardiff University Library, Cochrane Archive, University Hospital Llandough). Shortly after his capture in June 1941, he was sent to a POW camp at Slonica in Greece where he conducted his “first, worst and most successful clinical trial” (2). The camp was a run-down, overcrowded army barracks, infested with bed bugs. The diet was minimal-breakfast: unsweetened "ersatz" coffee; midday: a bowl of vegetable soup; evening: two slices of plain bread- in all, about 400 to 500 calories. Archie was appointed chief medical officer by the Germans, not because of his medical abilities, but because of his time in Germany he spoke fluent German. He also became the senior British officer in charge of 8000 demoralized, hungry British prisoners of war. Southwest Journal of Pulmonary and Critical Care/2012/Volume 5 67 In August an epidemic of jaundice accompanied by edema began and rapidly progressed. The German doctors claimed that the edema was due to the sun and not to starvation. Archie was also afflicted with severe jaundice and pitting edema above the knees. He decided that something must be done, and that he was the only one who could do it. He hypothesized, incorrectly as it turns out, that the prisoners were suffering from “wet beriberi" due to a vitamin deficiency. Archie bought some yeast on the black market and recruited 20 young prisoners and divided them between two wards. Each man in one ward received two spoonfuls of yeast daily. Those in the other ward received one tablet of vitamin C. By the fourth day there was a conclusive difference in the edema. Archie asked the members of each ward whether they felt better, the same, or worse. Nine out of ten in the "yeast" ward felt better; none in the other. Archie showed the results to the Germans and asked for yeast and more food. They said, as usual, that they would see what they could do. However, a young German doctor pointed out that the results were incontrovertible and they could be prosecuted for war crimes unless that did something. This led to the unexpected, the Germans actually produced the yeast and the epidemic was quashed. On reflection, Archie realized the edema was not wet beriberi. Furthermore, his trial numbers were too small, the time too short, and the outcome measurements poor. Yet the treatment worked. Archie later speculated that the small amount of protein in the yeast raised the plasma proteins sufficiently to correct fluid imbalance that led to the edema (2). Archie’s second experience in POW life at Elsterhorst, Germany was very different. He was assigned to the medical section where there were two other British doctors, who had been captured at Dunkirk. All the POWs with tuberculosis (most of whom were far advanced) of all nationalities, were herded together behind the wire. Archie knew a certain amount about tuberculosis and offered to take over that section of the medical work. Conditions were in many ways not too bad. Through Red Cross parcels there was sufficient food. Archie was able to 'screen' patients and do sputum 'smears' but radiographs were very limited. He could give patients bed rest, pneumothorax, and pneumoperitoneum. There was a French physiologist, an expert in 'adhesion-section', and thoracoplasty was a possibility. This tuberculosis work took up only a small part of Archie’s time. He realized that the rest of efforts must be devoted to "care" as the chance of a cure among these cases was minimal. He would later state that “I remember at that time reading one of those propaganda pamphlets, considered suitable for POW medical officers about ‘clinical freedom and democracy’. I found it impossible to understand. I had considerable freedom of choice of therapy: my trouble was that I did not know which to use and when. I would gladly have sacrificed my freedom for a little knowledge. I had never heard of ‘randomized controlled trials’, but I knew that there was no real evidence that anything we had to offer had any effect on tuberculosis, and I was afraid that I shortened the lives of some of my friends by unnecessary intervention” (1).
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